In the semiconductor industry, there is a constant demand to increase the operating speed of integrated circuits (ICs). This increased demand is fueled by the need for electronic devices such as computers to operate at increasingly greater speeds. The demand for increased speed, in turn, has resulted in a continual size reduction of the semiconductor devices. Specifically, the channel length, junction depths, and/or gate dielectric thickness of field effect transistors (FETs) are reduced, which leads to increased density and number of FETS that can be fabricated on a given single semiconductor wafer.
However, the aggressive scaling or size reduction of the FETs also raises various technical issues relating to contact spacing and parasitic capacitance, which need to be addressed in order to meet the requirements for both device performance and manufacturing yield.